J Immunother Cancer: The rate of venous thromboembolism in patients with melanoma treated with immuno-checkpoint inhibitors

Thromboembolism (TE) is an important factor in cancer death.
rates of arterial TE (ATE) and venous TE (VTE) in melanoma patients treated with immunosuppressants (ICI) are not clear.
study is a retrospective, queue study that analyzed melanoma patients treated with ICI between July 2015 and December 2017.
TE, including VTE (deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, visceral venous thrombosis) and ATE (myocardial infarction, stroke, exoartial arterial embolism, or transient cerebral ischemic episodes).
228 patients, with a medium age of 65 (23-91 years), 67% of men and a medium follow-up of 27.3 months.
the most commonly used (38.7%), and the Ipi single resistance was second (29.4%).
at the beginning of treatment, 81.1% of patients had IV-grade disease and 11% had brain metastasis (BM).
51 TE events occurred in 47 patients (20.6%) of patients, including 37 (16.2%) VTE and 14 (6.1%) ATE.
ICI treatment, the cumulative rate of TE over a six-month period was 9.3%, compared with 16.0% at 12 months.
the cumulative rate of VTE at 6 and 12 months of combined ICI therapy was higher than that of single-drug therapy (16.7% vs 5.0% and 21.3% vs 9.5%).
in the multivariate analysis, risk factors significantly associated with VTE were combined ICI therapy (risk ratio 2.7), a history of coronary artery disease (2.71), and anticoagulant therapy (4.14).
patients with or without brain metastasis had a lower prognosis in patients without brain metastasis than those without TE (2 years OS 50.8% vs 71.3%; HR 2.27).
, ICI therapy was associated with a higher TE rate in melanoma patients, higher TE in combined ICI therapy, and TE was associated with a poor prognosis.